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Friday, October 28, 2011

This was so good! I hardly got a picture. I loved being able to cook it in the morning and have it ready to eat that night. I'm so tired at the end of the day that cooking isn't my FAV thing to do but crock pot cooking is glorious!

First you have to make a BBQ sauce!

What you need:

1 T coconut oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 shallots, minced

1 t paprika

1 t chipotle seasoning

1 t ground cumin

1 t salt

1 1/4 cup chicken broth

Juice of 1.5 limes

1 t pure maple syrup (optional)

6 oz can of tomato paste

How to make:

1. In a sauce pan, heat the coconut oil on medium heat

2. Add garlic and shallots, and saute until soft and translucent

3. Add mustard and spices (continue to saute)

4. Add chicken broth, lime juice, maple syrup and tomato paste

5. Whisk until smooth

6. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover for 45 mins.

Next time to make the CHHIIIKKKCKKEENNN!

What you need:

4 boneless skinless chicken breast

2 apples- peeled, cored and grated

Homemade BBQ sauce

8 pieces of bacon

How to make:

1. Wrap each piece of chicken in 2 pieces of bacon and place in bottom of crock pot

2. Mix grated apple and barbecue sauce and pour over chicken

3. Cook on low for 7-8 hours!

It's presentation isn't beautiful but this was half-way though the meal when I remembered I forgot to take a picture. SO FREAKIN GOOD!!!!!

The crock pot recipe is from Wellness Mama and the BBQ sauce recipe is from Make It Paleo!!!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

My FAV meal of the day is by far the first (and most important) meal of the day. I love breakfast!!! But, most of time the breakfast I like includes a lot of gluten yumminess junk. NO BUENO! Praise the breakfast gods that there are people like Sarah Fragoso that are ultra BA and come up with alternatives that are nice to my belly :)
So, once again, I'm stealing her recipe. [Klepto's Anonymous meets on a night that's very inconvenient for me... I'm trying to deal with the issue on my own]

I slightly alter her recipe below (you know like how you do in college so you don't get gigged for plagiarism)

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Halloween is just around the corner! Over at my cave, my fabulous neanderthal A has started decorating my yard! Yes, that is a half buried body wearing my old Nike's and my old jeans (THAT ARE TOO BIG FOR ME NOW FYI!!!!) and yes, it has successfully scared ME, probably more than anyone, after a late night or beginning an early morning before the sun is up.

Have children? Concerned about a paleo halloween? Check out my other hero (besides Chelle) Sarah Fragoso (author of Everyday Paleo) and her thoughts on "SURVIVING HALLOWEEN" if you're interested.

Hey all! Yelle here! This might be my favorite random creation I've come up with ever. It's super simple and DELICIOUS. It's also great if you miss that "crunch" from a cracker like I often do. The baby bells are SO sweet and crunchy, and they are often on sale at Publix!

Basically, I took tuna and made it the way I like it, (with LOTS of boiled eggs, a few spoons of mayo and a dash of honey mustard, maybe some celery, cilantro or green pepper).

Monday, October 17, 2011

Okay, so they aren't really PB&J Burgers because cavemen don't eat peanuts (there bad news bears). But, they are AB&J burgers because almond butter is OKAY. Also, if you think this sounds really gross, your right; it does SOUND really gross but it tastes really delish! I had approval. Here is what I did.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Hi all! Yelle here, I've been gone out West for a week [New Mexico and Arizona] but I'm back now! I thought since Chelle was showing before and after pictures, I would too. I haven't quite gotten brave enough to show my ORIGINAL before picture [Chelle took it on May 25th], but I'll show one of my "in progress" pictures from last week. I have lost 30 pounds and for the first time since I think I was 9, I am in the "average" and not "overweight" BMI range. WOOT for me and WOOT for my cave twin, Chelle, who has brought me this far. <3 LOVE to her and LOVE to all of you! More to come.. Now I'm off to dinner with my NEANDERTHAL, A, because he is rushing me out the door!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Hey friends,
I promised a better picture. So, here it is. Be nice. It took a lot of will power to post a no-makeup picture up here without retouching my imperfections. I also realize that after pictures don't mean much without before pictures but, too bad. I can't. I have to draw the line somewhere.

I look totally different without makeup, right??? SCARY! But, I am super happy with the results of going 100% crap free.

Low down

Face: Progress after 3 weeks of the OCM. My skin is MUCH clearer with a much better texture. It's well balanced; never too dry or too oily. However, there are still some other things I want to address with it and I will talk about that more later.

Hair: This is my hair after 3 weeks without using traditional shampoo. All I did was let it air dry after the shower ((I had to pull my bangs back like a 4 year old because I'm trying to grow them out and they are a really super weird length)). My hair isn't fabulous yet but I must say it looks much better than this if i brush it (totally forgot to do that). The waves gets much softer and shinier and my roots have more lift!

What now?

I have every intention of keeping up with this routine in its entirety. I love it. I love being able to pronounce everything I put on my body and having positive results is a huge plus. I CANNOT use chemicals on my face. Every acne medication and cleanse I've ever used (seriously everything: proactive, clear and clear, prescriptions etc...) ends up worsening the issue. As far as my hair goes, I'm super happy as well. I know it doesn't look like a hair commercial YET but, my hair used to suck. It was wavy when I was younger, got super curly in middle school and then, after much abuse, was just damaged and was pretty much straight/frizzy (not so cute). Now it carries a consistent wave and I'm very excited to see how it will look in weeks to come.

Back to my skin.

If you read my last post, you know that I mentioned starting WAP me Pretty. I read about this through cavegirleats. So far, I have addressed the issues with my skin topically through the OCM. WAP me pretty will help me deal with my skin internally. It's based on using known complexion beautifiers in their natural state (sulfur, antibiotics, and vitamin A) as opposed to using them in chemically altered commercial formulas. I will be taking a cod liver supplement, brewers yeast, and sauerkrap sauerkraut. YUM!!!

Last week I started with the brewers yeast and sauerkraut. Today, I got my cod liver oil in the mail (YAY!) and took my first serving about 2 hours ago. Brewers yeast is GROSS!!! OMG! But I started putting it in my smoothie in the morning (find my recipe in the archives) and that helps a TON. Sauerkraut is actually really growing on me and I totally don't mind a serving everyday with lunch.

As far as the cod liver oil is concerned, it's DELICIOUS!!! I even documented my first dose!!! (My face is yellow because I'm wearing that turmeric mask on my face... I'm not in liver failure.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Well hello there :) It's been a little while since I've seen your lovely face! I'm back on track now though. Ready to blog my life away. Today I'm going to let you in on all the hairy details of my progress going crud free. The good, the great, the not-so-awesome, the "your hair looks great ...from the front... did you forget to check the back of your head this morning?" Yeah, THAT happened.

Notice the title of this blog ^^^ up there (where it says "progress"). I have not made my full transition yet!!! I have this very passionate personality that prohibits me from doing anything half ass, but it always comes back to bite me. Like, I probably shouldn't have done everything thing at once... It would have helped a lot to think this through, but then I wouldn't be me. I have one speed. GO!

I've had to pump the breaks a little bit in order to smooth my journey to crud free. Now, let's talk hair!!!

HAIR

1st horrible idea I had: I should stop shampooing my hair right after I get it colored... Like the day after... when my hair is seriously damaged and dry from a bunch of chemicals. That sounds like a great time to start washing my hair with baking soda. I heard my hair say "WTF chelle!!! REALLY??"

(sn: not going to be dying my hair anymore... it's not very cave girl).

After the first baking soda wash I was SOLD. My hair was awesome and had a ton of volume! So, with that, I hit my easy button and thought about conquering the world or something. I mean, seriously... what a bunch of hippie cry babies talking about their hard transition to no poo.

and then... BAM!

My hair freaked out. It was seriously scared and confused and apparently Aks (yea, aks) Gary doesn't DO hair emergencies. My scalp was oily and my ends were sooo dry. My hair felt like HAY! I stroked it lovingly while whispering sweet nothings to it and, in time it calmed down. I still had to wear it in a pony tail though which bothered me a lot. This week I broke down and washed it (I know... it's shameful). I had no choice! We had a burn at fire academy and my hair smelled like a campfire. I used this shampoo I found at the health food store and the ingredients list is essentially no poo. It contains saponified (soapy) shea butter and virgin coconut oil AND its fair trade. It was amazing. My hair looks normal and smells like lavender. I figure I will continue to wash my hair with BS and once a week with the sheapoo (you see what I did there) to ease the transition.

Favorite side effect: Natural, beachy waves! I might just be trying to convince myself that my not-curly-but-not-straight hair is pretty but i did get a "I like your hair that way" and I was all "YES! I did this really coool thing to it. It's called nothing and then I let it air dry.

What I bought....

FACE

2nd horrible idea I had: I should change my skin care regimen on my super sensitive and revolting skin right after I go off BC and my hormones are fixin' to make a war zone out of my face.

UGGHHH! Such a bad idea! If you've read the blog you know that I switched to the Oil Cleansing Method as recommended by cavegirleats. I LOVE IT BTW! I've had problem skin my whole life and nothing (I mean NOTHING) has ever helped it. After the first week of using the OCM, my face was pretty much clear and glowy and dewy and yumm. Again, SOLD! Until the next week (this past week), when my skin said (in an obnoxious tone) "JK JK! HAHAH you thought you were almost pretty for a moment". I had a horrible breakout! My first instinct was to cut my head off. Then, after some thought, I decided to keep being nice to my skin and eventually it would come around. Which it TOTALLY has. To help the healing, I put this homemade mask (recipe later... keep reading) on my face morning and night. My skin actually healed super fast. I'm thinking it was a combination of that, red leaf tea and coconut oil that saved the day.

RANDOM

Those were my big stories. As far as body care, coconut oil makes you feel like a baby and makes people want to touch you (which could be awesome or horrible depending on who we are talking about). I use it for everything. I shave with it. I use it as a lip gloss. I ADORE IT. I hold it close to my chest as I sleep. We're BFF's! F with my coconut oil, I'll F with your life... all I'm saying...

WARNING!

If your all weirded out because I don't use smell good stuff. DON'T BE! It's awesome! And ironically I get told I smell good a lot which means I have super sexy pheromones that were covered up by all those chemicals. So, if you decide to go crud-free don't blame me when you life turns into one of the Axe commercials in reverse. I carry a stick to beat em' off with. It's a hard life i live.

I kid... one guy likes the way i smell. and I don't beat him.

face mask recipe:

olive oil, turmeric, splash of lemon juice.
Turmeric is a natural antiseptic and it makes your skin glow! I HEART IT. Leave it on for 10 mins.

PROGRESS

This is not a fair progess picture. I did my hair and I'm obviously wearing makeup. I was going out to dinner with that guy who thinks I smell good. I was NOT feeling particularly photogenic today. I'll keep you posted on a more legit progress photo in the near future.

So, that's all I got for you. My brains starting to hurt.

To come:

I started WAP me pretty (also recommended by cavegirleats... my cyber girl crush). I don't feel like explaining it to you. Look it up on her web page. I'll let you know how its goes in my next progress report.